British authorities on Sunday announced that the mass stabbing incident on a train bound for London is not being considered a terrorist attack.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” Superintendent John Loveless from British Transport Police told reporters. “This is a shocking incident, and my thoughts are with those who have been injured and their families.”
“We continue work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident,” he added. “It would not be appropriate to speculate on the cause.”
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Counterterrorism police initially supported the investigation into the mass stabbing of passengers on a train traveling from the northern city of Doncaster to London’s King’s Cross that occurred on Saturday evening. Authorities declared “Plato,” the national codeword used when responding to a “marauding terror attack,” before rescinding the declaration.
Two men were arrested in connection with the attack within eight minutes of police receiving their first emergency call on Saturday evening. They are both British nationals, Loveless said in an update Sunday.
Of the 11 people hospitalized due to the attack, four have been discharged and two remain in life-threatening condition, he added.
The attack occurred on the East Coast Main Line, known as one of Great Britain’s busiest railway routes. It connects major cities, running from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverly in Scotland.
British Defense Secretary John Healey said following the attack that“there’s no reason for the rest of us not to get on with our lives”, as he described the early assessment of the mass stabbing as an “isolated attack,” in comments to Sky News.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos during the attack.
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Olly Foster said he was listening to Audible on his phone when a man ran past, warning passengers of a man “stabbing everyone, everything”.
“At first I thought: ‘Is it a joke, it’s Halloween, are they pranking?’ But you could see in their faces that this was serious,” he said.
